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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Down with the Ducks

Game four between the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks last night was one of the worst officiated hockey games I have ever seen. It was one long, horribly lopsided, favoritism filled game where the officials did everything they could to give the Ducks a leg up. The Wild still managed to come out on top, however. It's just too bad they weren't playing full throttle for the first three games of the series.

I was consistently dumbfounded by the boneheaded calls and non-calls the officials were making. In one instance, a Wild player (Veilleux) was pushed after a dead puck so he pushed back and was then sucker punched... by two different players, so he returned on light punch. He received a roughing penalty. Just him. No Ducks players.

In other cases, there were obvious holds, cheap hits, and generally dirty moves performed by the Ducks, yet the officials turned a blind eye. In one case, a Wild player was hit into the post on the Ducks' goal well after the play had moved to the neutral zone. It was beyond frustrating seeing the crap that got let go.

And to top it all off, Brad May laid out Kim Johnsson with a sucker punch at the end of the game, giving him a head injury. Not only did that happen, but while Huskins of the Ducks was fighting Adam Hall from the Wild, Thornton from the Ducks races in to double team Hall, ripping him down to the ground while both Huskins and Thornton beat on him.

I never thought of the Ducks as a dirty team, but after this game it is apparent that they're nothing more than a bunch of thugs. Here's to hoping Boogaard knocks the shit out of someone tomorrow night.